%0 Journal Article
%A Haspelmath, Martin
%+ Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Defining the word : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000D-A695-F
%R 10.1080/00437956.2023.2237272
%7 2023-08-15
%D 2023
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X In this paper, I propose a definition of the term word that can be applied to all languages using the same criteria. Roughly, a word is defined as a free morph or a clitic or a root plus affixes or a compound plus affixes. The paper relies on earlier definitions of the terms free, morph, affix, clitic, root, and compound, which are summarized here. I briefly compare the proposed definition with Bloomfield’s, I note that it is a shared-core definition, and I say how word-forms differ from lexemes. In the final section, I explain why I think that an unnatural-seeming definition is better than a prototype definition or other options.
%K Word clitic affix compound lexeme
%J WORD
%V 69
%N 3
%& 283
%P 283 - 297
%I Routledge